6.3 Earthquake strikes Christchurch, New Zealand (pics)

[Scat]

Seems unlikely that it'll be in our lifetime. Besides, a lot of the city's planning and structural codes have been in lieu of a potentially huge earthquake. If it happened, the damage would be fairly significant (I'd guess most of the significant damage would be to things like water mains and power lines), but I don't think you'd see many toppled buildings and whatnot. The US being a fairly new country bodes well for the quality of structures they put up in comparison to countries that get decimated by earthquakes... no disrespect to any of these other countries, of course.

The quality of structures put up in the US? I think you forgot about San Francisco in 1989:

Those are just a couple I found in about 30 seconds.

Pics of the 94 Northridge quake aftermath (of which I "participated")

This was a 6.8 quake. In SoCal there is a premium placed on earthquake damage prevention during the construction process. Utah has nowhere near the building codes regarding earthquakes. If a similarly sized quake were to hit anywhere between Ogden to Provo the structural devastation would be astounding.

 

[GVC]

Also, New Zealand just as new a country as the US.

 

[NUMBERICA]

New building techniques only somewhat quell the incredible destructive force of mother earth rubbing one out.

 

[sirkickyass]

To defend US building codes a bit, I personally experienced a 5.5 earthquake during the bar exam and pretty much nothing happened of any consequence even though I was quite close to the epicenter. Everything in my car was all reordered though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chino_Hills_earthquake

The best part was when the California State Bar hired a consultant to determine how people's scores were affected by being present during an earthquake and handed out some nominal number of points (worth, in most instances, less than a single question) to make people feel better.

 

[Archie Moses]

New building techniques only somewhat quell the incredible destructive force of mother earth rubbing one out.

Having previously worked with a seismic company that manufactures products that allow buildings to vertically deflect and horizontally drift (curtain wall) during seismic activities, the ICC, OSHPD and TSN, I can tell you new building techniques do more than what most people think/know. Seismic technology has come a long way. Pretty much every building that falls is built poorly and with old technology. In other words, it's not ICC approved.

 

[VINYLONE]

I can agree with the previous post...